9-4-2012: Israeli vandals attack West Bank monastery

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http://news.yahoo.com/pro-settler-vandals-attack-west-bank-monastery-114038215.html

A monk stands next to graffiti sprayed on a wall at the entrance to the Latrun Monastery near Jerusalem September 4, 2012. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vandals set fire to the doors of a Christian monastery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday and daubed pro-settler graffiti on its walls in a possible retaliation for the eviction of families from an unauthorized outpost.

The name of the unauthorized Migron outpost, cleared of Israeli settlers following a court order on Sunday, was scrawled on the well-known 19th century Latrun Monastery, alongside the words "Jesus is a monkey" in Hebrew, said police.

Israeli security officials had said they were worried Sunday's eviction of 50 families from Migron, in another part of the West Bank near Ramallah, might provoke more attacks from a vigilante settler group known as "Price Tag".

The "Price Tag" name refers to retribution some Israeli settlers say they will exact for any attempt by their government to curb settlement in the West Bank, an area Palestinians seek as part of a future state.

The group has targeted mosques and, less commonly, Christian churches, seeing any non-Jewish religious sites as an intrusion on the land.

Palestinian Christian academic Bernard Sabella told Reuters the attack, and others like it, had been carried out by "groups of extremist Jews who do not want Muslims or Christians to remain in this country".

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat issued a statement accusing the Israeli government of not doing enough to prosecute the attackers...READ MORE